Forum - View topicThe Appeal of Shojo to Men and Women
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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There was this thread, [Can men enjoy Shoujo?], but the contents of it should not really be associated with it. WHat I'm trying to find out is how it appeals to you posters out there, and people in general.
For me, I think that the relationships and issues involving those relationships are told better from a girl's point of view for one, and these issues aren't as easy to resolve for two. Which really lets these stories make sense. On top of that, I love the fashion sense, of course I never realized it before I started reading shojo manga. You dress these characters up not slutty or outright or anything like that, they're just going to town with these clothes that you would never think look good on them, and it's just a casual sense, nothing too fancy. Another thing I like is the comedy from those series that are appropriate for it. Angel Sanctuary however, is not your typical girly shojo so I can't say much for this title. On a general point of view, I think what appeals to many girls and women in Japan for shojo is partly the relationships dealt with in the stories, pretty much the same of what I said. Women are delicate especially when it comes to love, I've known some girls that have gotten very hurt (emotionally) by the relationships that they were in and out of. I think it also helps not to have this harem of scantily clad women around a nerd as well. As to appealing to men, I can't really say much because I don't know too many men who read this genre. I will say though that men could possibly learn a lesson or two about relationships, if they read the right stories. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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For me, the appeal of shoujo has always been the emphasis on characters and their development over time, especially when it comes to relationships with others. I just find it interesting to look at how people and relationships work, or don't work as the case may be. I also find that to really enjoy anything, I generally need to actually care about the characters, and for this to happen I need at least a bit of access into who they are and what makes them tick.
Of course, I personally also need a decent, on-going plot to hold my interest in a series, which not all shoujo has. Anything too episodic usually doesn't interest me, with the exception of comedy series that can usually get away with it. I also tend to like my shoujo fluffy on the outside, with depth, which is how I usually describe the work of Watase Yuu (with the exception of Ceres, which is not very fluffy at all). There has to be some meaning or deeper issues going on, pointless filler is boring and only a few series can get away with it without turning me off (the main exception being Sailor Moon, because their filler usually is character development oriented, plus when they eventually deal with the overarching plot they do a really good job with it). |
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kolibri
 Posts: 712 Location: Vancouver |
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My husband enjoys some of my selected shoujo series.
He really likes Ouran High School Host Club because of the humor (he watched the anime too, and actually prefers that). He doesn't really get anything about the relationship fluff, not his thing. He likes Banana Fish - but that's a very different shoujo series, much action and politics and relationships are, well, almost BL. Lately he read Aria and liked that, although I really have no idea why, I don't even know if/why I like it  I think for him it was just something with cute girls, relaxing to read when he's stressed when he doesn't want to deal with blood and gore (which is much more his genre).
So what I'm saying is that he doesn't read shoujo for characters, relationships and emotions like I do. But good shoujo has other things in it too, and can work in many levels and some of those levels appeal to him. |
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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One of the things that's most appealing to me as a guy who's a fan of shoujo is how the women in shoujo manga are shown to be just as powerful if not more so than men and that they're just as capable of taking on active leadership roles as their male counterparts are. Growing up as a kid, I always thought the female characters in cartoons and comics had more interesting personalties than the male characters, but it always disappointed me that either their powers were very weak compared to guys or if they were powerful, they were always used very rarely. For example, Jean Grey was always one of my favorite X-men characters and she always had the coolest powers, especially when she was the Phoenix, but I was always so pissed that they never really used her as much as they did characters like Cyclops and Wolverine. But more often than not, the girls in shoujo manga end up saving the guys half the time and they're always very independent and strong-willed but still have strong beliefs in friendship and teamwork. I just love how balanced the gender roles are and the female characters just seem so much more down-to-earth. I mean, like the Sakura in CCS seems a lot more believable to me than say, the Sakura from Naruto who's too much of a cardboard cut-out anime stereotype for my tastes. And of course I also love the focus on relationships and emotions and shoujo manga also seems to be more comical than shounen manga. I laugh more often while reading Fruits Basket than I do reading Inuyasha, for instance.
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I actually enjoy the anime more too, though admittedly it was what I saw first (and in cases where manga and anime are about equal in quality which one you see first often determines preference) plus I've only read two volumes of the manga. But I just find the humour is better played out in the anime, plus I do dislike the whole "we shall ignore time" note at the beginning of volume 2, it seems to me like rather a cop-out on the mangaka's behalf. |
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